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dustedmagazine · 1 year

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Lilah Larson — Solo Guitar Improvisations (Ruination)

Solo Guitar Improvisations by Lilah Larson

Lilah Larson spent much of their musical life framing queer-centric perspectives in the raw, angular, rock clangor in the New York City-based Sons of an Illustrious Father. In addition, the guitarist has made one solo, song-based album called Pentimento, in 2016, and has collaborated with the Mozart in the Jungle actor Lola Kirke on a couple of discs. This latest album, a collection of improvised and atmospheric guitar pieces breaks with any obvious narrative, luxuriating instead in pure sonic vibration.

For each piece, Larson starts with a single, lucid idea, often no more than a few notes, and fleshes it out into a fuller statement. “i” for instance, (the pieces are all numbered, from one to ten, Roman-style), starts a trebly twitter of electric guitar notes, set, somewhat nervously, atop a whoosh of space rock effects. The bones of the piece are built a three-note cadence, two quick notes, and a longer one an octave up. Over this, Larson layers a downward sloping melody, longer tones, more meditative, pure and abstract but with the faintest, ghostliest echo of Americana or blues. The stateliness of this melody contrasts in an interesting way with the doppler wails of pedal effects, the past tipping a dusty black hat to the deep space future, in a droning, nodding meditation.

The long “x” (at over 14 minutes, the album’s most expansive track) lays a foundation of droning organ atmospherics, then lets open-ended guitar twang mark out time with subtly blues-inflected meditation. Larson sounds a bit like soundtrack Mark Knoffler here, slowed and freed from song structure.

“v” is the most overtly country of these pieces, with its long, looping bent notes, but once you’ve heard it, you can’t help but read traditional figures into other, more abstract compositions. “iii,” for instance, has the lyrical lilt of porch blues, though distilled and cleared of all impurities. “ii” sounds a bit like a Jack Rose psychedelic raga, but slower and without so many notes. “viii” is spiky and abrasive, almost punk in its sharp rhythmic attack. But they’re all relatively simple sounds. These are guitar tones pared to vibrating, resonating essence and allowed to bloom against velvety silence.

There are no words, either sung or spoken, anywhere on this album, and so no obvious message, whether political or personal. And yet, you can’t help but feel that Larson has expressed something foundational about themself, through the unhurried contemplation of the sounds that move them.

Jennifer Kelly

#lilah larson #solo guitar improvisations #ruination #jennifer kelly #albumreview #dusted magazine #guitar #improvisation #sons of an illustrious father #genrequeer

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sinceileftyoublog · 2 years

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Cassandra Jenkins Live Stream Review: 5/17, Mandolin

Photo by Wyndham Boylan-Garnett

BY JORDAN MAINZER

“I drove in L.A. for the first time today...it was fucking terrifying.” Those words were spoken by Cassandra Jenkins back in February at The Troubadour in Los Angeles during a stop on her tour opening for The Weather Station. Full circle, a victory lap, whatever you want to call it: Hearing that statement during last night’s livestream of the show on Mandolin, I couldn’t help but think of it as a fitting connection to Jenkins’ declaration that “I finally got my license when I was 35″ from “Hard Drive”, the standout track from last year’s stellar An Overview on Phenomenal Nature (Ba Da Bing!). Jenkins has been relentlessly touring her breakout record, both as a headliner and opening in larger venues for artists like Andy Shauf and Courtney Barnett. Her friend she stayed with in L.A. had left her his car keys in case she wanted to use the car. “Haven’t you heard the song?” she joked to him. “It’s a public disclaimer set to music.” Jokes aside, it’s that type of self-awareness and humor in overcoming anxiety and trauma that makes Jenkins such a powerful songwriter who resonates with so many people.

Playing for the first time with her excellent band that night, Jenkins’ clarity certainly stood out. Her simultaneous vibrato and whisper in singing, “What is it you’re looking for?” on “Crosshairs” contained infinite seeming meaning in its quietude, as did any mere sigh on the hopeful “New Bikini”. But even if she was the prominent figure in the performance, the band--guitarist Lilah Larson, drummer Sheridan Riley, bassist Abbey Blackwell, and saxophonist Levi Gillis--had amble space to breathe. As on the studio version, Larson’s raw guitar solo centralized “Michelangelo”. Gillis’ fluttery saxophone gave “New Bikini” its unequivocal sense of renewal. Overall, the band conjured the emotional ebbs and flows of Jenkins’ songs that other bands like Explosions in the Sky or even Talk Talk usually do with more volume or sonic layers. In impressive contrast, “Hard Drive” took the shape of a Velvet Underground-like krautrock chugger instead of the album version’s iconic shuffle. If Jenkins was ever worried that, in combination with her songs’ dreamy instrumentation, her music might be interpreted as naïve new age mantras--from “the water, it cures everything,” to “1, 2, 3, count with me”--she put such thoughts to bed by showing that the songs can be fun crunchy rock and roll tunes.

In fact, the one new song Jenkins snuck into her opening set was the similarly minimal, concise and biting “Pygmalion”, originally recorded at Abbey Road and released in March as a standalone single via Secretly Canadian. If An Overview on Phenomenal Nature concentrated on the infinite, “Pygmalion”, a song born out of relationship frustrations that uses the Greek myth who falls in love with a statue of himself as a commentary on our own self-absorption, gets right to the point. “Say it to my face,” Jenkins sung in a deep vocal register, giving us an actionable clue as to where she might go next.

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#live music #cassandra jenkins #mandolin #ba da bing!#abbey road #secretly canadian #an overview on phenomenal nature #wyndham boylan-garnett #the troubadour #the weather station #andy shauf #courtney barnett #lilah larson #sheridan riley #abbey blackwell #levi gillis #explosions in the sky #talk talk #velvet underground

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acciohunks · 2 years

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#Ezra miller #Lilah Larson #December 22nd

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sillyandyearning · 2 years

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Some shots from last night. Ezra asked me to get this picture of them in this tiara. We got to talk and it was super chill and fun. We complimented each other’s outfits, talked movies, music and Ben Affleck. Then Oddkin performed and they were absolutely incredible, such a powerful intimate gig like no other

#ezra miller #lilah larson #oddkin #sons of an illustrious father #clwb ifor Bach

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astarionsleftfang · 3 years

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